Mostly Aesthetics

Home
Essays
Poetry
Archive
About

January 2025

“If the Devil were himself their scribe”
...
 • 
Brad Skow
The Grotesque in Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor’s stories are, by her own account, “preoccupied with the grotesque.” The reason, some argue, is that the grotesque is fascinating to…
 • 
Brad Skow
4
“The time has come to show our strengthened hand”
The Earl of Hillsborough (Secretary of State for the Colonies) to Governor Bernard, Whitehall (London), July 30th, 1768
 • 
Brad Skow
1
Before Washington
We’ve forgot, but ”for many years it was possible to assert that Samuel Adams ranked with, if not above, George Washington," as a hero of the American…
 • 
Brad Skow
3
Hitchcock / Van Gogh
In the third scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Gavin Elster asks his old college pal Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) to spy on his wife, because, Elster…
 • 
Brad Skow
2
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
John Dickinson, 1767-68
 • 
Brad Skow
Book Review: Shakespeare’s Metrical Art by George T. Wright
Iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form used by Shakespeare, permits a great deal of rhythmic flexibility; and that flexibility can be exploited for…
 • 
Brad Skow
6

December 2024

© 2025 Bradford Skow
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture